PARTLY A POKE, PARTLY A WAKE-UP CALL

I posted here on Monday December 30, 2019 an article titled "A Letter to Woolwich Council, Staff, MOE/MECP, CPAC, Ombudsman etc.". The sub-title was "Sad State Of Public Transparency And Accountability". This morning I sent a followup e-mail to Woolwich Councillors which may also end up going to others as well. Today's e-mail included an Attachment which was an article in last Thursday's Waterloo Region Record titled "Ontario's Ombudsman is more lapdog than watchdog". The Record article was written by Andre Marin who certainly knows what he is talking about in regards to the Ombudsman's office as he held that position from 2005 until 2015. By that time Kathleen Wynne and the governing Liberals had been on the receiving end of far too much criticism (as far as they were concerned) regarding various government bodies and agencies who had at the least under performed their duties according to the Ombudsman's public reports. Hence his mandate was not renewed and he was replaced by the to date unspectacular Paul Dube. Apparently even the Ontario Ombudsman can not fight City Hall indefinitely without paying the consequences.

This is the great truth that so many of our citizens are oblivious to. Democracy is beyond fragile. It is at death's door as the majority of politicians are accomplished liars, deflectors and manipulators. They do not hesitate to "change the narrative", "gild the lily", and "massage the truth" whenever it serves their purposes. They count on not just citizens giving them the benefit of the doubt but even the media tend to be obsequious and respectful towards office holders until at least the particular politician has been caught once too often out and out lying (think D. Trump?).

The purpose of today's e-mail to Woolwich councillors is within the title of this posting above. Woolwich Council and some staff have not been honest with either the public or myself in regards to the methane issues in and around the former Bolender Park Landfill. They have actually accepted a couple of my recommendations for greater monitoring on the north and south sides of the former landfill all the while publicly, falsely, denying almost every fact I presented to them and the public. Hard to have any respect at all for that kind of behaviour. It seems as if they'd rather prove themselves as blatant liars rather than ever admit that either they or their predecessors made mistakes.